That's awesome news. I like how the clones are now "echo" characters, indexed in the same slots.
But I'm not liking how a lot of the controllable Final Smashes are now looking to be uncontrollable.

Other changes (speaking as I haven't been able to watch the videos yet, just check on articles):
Mario has Cappy, but possibly just as a cosmetic touch.
Link's bombs & Final have changed.
Female Pikachus are available.
FALCO'S FINAL HAS CHANGED THANK THE LORD.
Ryu now always faces the opponent in 1-on-1.
Samus can charge in mid-air.
Dedede's Final has changed again.
Damage percentages now include decimals.
Female Pkmn Trainer now available.
Pkmn Trainers can swap mons without penalty (i.e., no more stamina meter)
Cloud's Limit gauge is always visible.
Robin's sword/tome gauges are now visible.
Villager's pocket is now visible.
Giga Bowser has been buffed. Run.
Monado Art selection is streamlined.
Pit has a new Final again.
Samus has a new final.
Olimar's helmet cracks with damage. Not sure if that affects his performance.
Finals are now "get right to the punch", whatever the crap that means.
Wario-Man has been altered.
DK has a new final. Still bongo-esque, but more Jungle Beat & less Konga.
Giga Mac has been altered.
Mega Man's Final now includes Proto Man & Bass.
Palutena "has a set special attack for each move". (No more customs?)
ROB now has a fuel gauge.
Inkling: Inked opponents take more damage.
Inkling: Ink can run out & must be recharged in squid form.
More ATs can be KO'd, & those kills count towards your score in timed matches.
Waluigi still an assist trophy, because sometimes I get what I want in life, & what I wanted was Waluigi not to be playable.
New ATs: Midna, Burrowing Snagret, Bomberman, Squid Sisters, Rodin
New Pokeballs: Solgaleo, Bewear
New items: Healing Field, Launch Star, Bomber, FAKE SMASH BALL
New stages: Moray Towers, Great Plateau Tower
Returning stages: Green Greens, Kongo Falls, Princess Peach's Castle, Great Bay, Shadow Moses Island, New Pork City, Saffron City
Omega mode returns. New Battlefield mode with it.
Directional air dodging. Excessive dodging shortens invulnerability window.
Ladder attacks.
Short hop attacks.
Attacks do more damage in 1-v-1.
Cube controllers & Amiibo are still compatible.
Paula & Poo show up for Ness's final (to summon the Starstorm, maybe?). Likewise, Kumatora & Boney show up for Lucas's.
Pichu is still a masochist.
Zelda has a new Final.
Ganon's Final is now OoT-based.RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 7th

So far, the only confirmed new characters are Inklings & Ridley (& Daisy as an echo), but we've got almost 6 months for more info.

- tried to cut MY BOY LUCAS and made me pay for him if I wanted to play as him
- cut the only stage from MY BOY LUCAS's game
- no adventure mode so single player is LAME AND SUCKS
- cut MY BOY RED/POKEMON TRAINER and just had charizard, boooooooo lame 0/10 i want a nerdy 10yo running around in the bg

Things Smash Ultimate has already done for me in reparations for these egregious wrongs:

- MY BOY LUCAS IS BACK!!!!!!!
- MY BOY LUCAS'S STAGE IS BACK!!!!!!!
- KUMATORA AND BONEY ARE HERE TOO SO HE HAS FRIENDS!!!!!!!!
- POKEMON TRAINER IS BACK SO HE HAS MORE FRIENDS!!!!!!!!! (Subspace Emissary is canon.)
- POKEMON TRAINER HAS LEAF AS AN ALT SKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things Smash Ultimate still needs to do in order to fully regain my trust:

SINGLE PLAYER **OR** CO-OP STORY/ADVENTURE MODE PLEASE AND HECKIN THANK YOU

The new Smash absolutely stole E3 this year, it looks like Sakurai's finally found a comfortable middle ground between competitive and casual play too, it seems faster than Smash for Wii U (though that could just be me), and all the quality of life changes are really great.

While watching the Invitational, I had some concerns about the gameplay. The blastzones seem unnecessarily large, and the knockback momentum is really weird. (starts off really fast and then grinds to a halt) This led to numerous moments where players were surviving attacks at high %. I hope these change before release, but I don't think they're as guaranteed as nerfs to Bayonetta. (the anti-hype of the Invitational they needed to see, lol)

Oh god, yeah that Bayonetta fight was sooo bad, I was laughing when I watched it. Yeah hopefully that makes it painfully obvious to Sakurai how badly Bayonetta needs a nerf. He did mention that while they were playing that he noticed some bugs, so it's possible the weirdness of the knockback was what he meant. Also possible that the more pro players were just exceptionally good at tilting, but I dunno.

oh yeah people in the crowd were booing when bayo 3-stocked plup so thats probably not sticking around

i did notice that people seemed to be living an awfully long time, and also that because of the way knockback works, it seemed like there were a LOT of instances of moves that looked like they should kill but didn't until like 50% later. i don't know if the knockback is really that non-indicative or if i'm just so used to how every other game did it that i don't have a sense for it.

i mean specifically with how fast people accelerate. it constantly tricked me into thinking people would get hit harder than they actually did, whereas with smash 4 the problems were vectoring (for horizontal moves), blast zones often being larger than they appear, and the kill thunder not accounting for di.